Just So Stories?: A Gendai Haiku Sequence

for Roland Barthes

"the goal of literary work (of literature as work) is to make the reader no longer a consumer, but a producer of the text"

-- Roland Barthes, S/Z

the Muse's rapid-fire delivery of lines pregnant silence

the Muse lies on the floor my haiku dripping with blood

my haiku caged in 5-7-5 syllables scars on editor's mind

readers’ heads stuck together my haiku is the cat that walks by himself

a wordless poem between the critic and me glass wall

the Muse addresses young poets via video stream: Death of the Author

Just So Stories?: A Gendai Haiku Sequence

Relay Race Haiku

the butterfly makes dreaming a relay race

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

English as a Second Language Class Senryu

ESL class:
the Chinese have oral sex
with some consonants

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Note: ESL stands for English as a Second Language.

Thunder Haiku

lightning is the moon's silence  thunder its gibbering tongue

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Rusty Cross Haiku

giant rusty cross in winter light my nipples erect

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Salmon Haiku

salmon wedge 
the Pacific Ocean
between mother and me

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Bald Eagle Haiku

the wrinkled sea
under an bald eagle
crabwalks

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Old Dog Haiku

after a long yawn
her old dog licks its penis --
itching in my heart

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Sparrows Visual Haiku

sparrowsonthepowerline

        autumn dusk

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Blood Moon Haiku

Basho, do you know
what a haiku smell like?
the blood moon

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Pin-Drop Silence Haiku

the I shifts from line to line  pin-drop silence

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Single-Edged Sword Haiku

the critic cutting my haiku with his single-edged sword

(for "Eric Liu," haiku editor of The NeverEnding Story)

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Glass Wall Haiku

a glass wall between the muse and me smell of darkness

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Razor's Edge Haiku

the Word walking on a razor's edge

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Head Upside-Down Haiku

writing haiku
my head upside-down
upon a cloud

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Muse Haiku

I eavesdrop
on the Muse's dream
while writing haiku

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku

Butterfly's Dream Haiku

the beginning
of all beginnings
a butterfly’s dream

New Bones: Selected Gendai Haiku
written for “Eric Liu,” haiku editor of The NeverEnding Story